Frequency Fees: Benin Republic government fine MTN $213m

The Benin Republic Government is set to fine South African telecoms giant for not paying the sum of $213million frequency fees for 2016 and 2017.

This was revealed by Benin’s regulator while reviewing its local unit’s reasons for not paying $213 million in frequency fees for 2016 and 2017.

It would be recalled that the telecommunication giant was also fine by Nigerian regulator for failure to cut off 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards as requested by the government.

Security was cited as being behind the move, over fears that Boko Haram insurgents were using unregistered SIMs to plan and execute attacks in the remote northeast.

In December 2015, the fine was reduced to $3.4 billion, then cut further in June last year to $1.7 billion, which at the time was equivalent to 330 billion naira. The payment is staggered over three years.

In March this year, MTN said it had paid nearly $100m of the $1.7 bn fine. “MTN has paid N30bn ($98m, 92 million euros) as part of the fine,” Tony Ojobo, spokesman for Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC)

“The payment is in furtherance of the agreed timetable for payment of the total fine.” He said MTN had already paid N80bn of the total fine of N330bn.

Ojobo said MTN was expected to pay the next tranche of the fine “based on the payment schedule agreed by the two parties.”